GlaxoSmithKline to fund $67 million of CRISPR research at UC
The University of California announced a major deal Thursday with the drug company GlaxoSmithKline, in which the pharmaceutical firm will provide up to $67 million over five years to fund researchers’ work using the gene-editing tool CRISPR to develop new medicines.
The partnership will create a new lab, called the Laboratory for Genomics Research, near UCSF’s Mission Bay campus in San Francisco, and jobs for 24 university employees and up to 14 GlaxoSmithKlein employees. It is jointly led by London-based GlaxoSmithKline, CRISPR co-inventor and UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna, and UCSF scientist Jonathan Weissman. The lab is already open and some initial hires have been made.
It is one of the largest investments from a pharmaceutical company the university has received to advance CRISPR research and drug discovery, but not the first major investment from a drug company for research purposes.
